I always try to ask questions that shed light on the health of the company and what their future goals are. This can give you a good indication on whether their is potential for growth and advancement.

"What do you like about working here?" It'll show you what they think about the company. If they struggle for an answer, it might indicate issues with the company. Body language will also indicate how they answer this question. They can always lie to you, but if they look visibly uncomfortable, that might indicate a problem.

I rarely have questions about the company or position, since most of my employment opportunities have been through networking/recruiting via real relationships (as opposed to social media relationships).

However, three of my most important questions are below:

#1) What is the dress code for this role, or for the organization overall?

- If everyday ironing is required, that MAY not be the position for me, but that depends on the PAY/BENEFITS.

- If a tie (or suit/jacket) is required, that is not the job for me (unless the purchase and dry cleaning costs are company reimbursed)

*** I spent 8 years in a suit (or at least a coat/tie), and I don't plan to spend another day in one (for work) ***

#2) What are the anticipated working hours for this position, and how firm are they?

- This just gives me a better idea of the company's view on the position.

* They may say, "just work your 40 hours as you see fit" or "M-F 8a to 5p with a 30 min mandatory lunch"

** These are both fine answers, but one demonstrates flexibility, while the other is quite regulated.

#3) What happened to the previous person in this role, or is this a new role?

- This gives them a chance to acknowledge my suspicions, or impress me by stating something like, "oh, I was promoted to CIO, and now I'm looking to fill my old role."

One thing I would ask is along the lines of - "I want to spin up a lamp server to do some things with a DB and a quick front end. Maybe someone needs data sorted and compared, spinning this up is literally faster for me than using Excel. What would be the process, here, for me being able to do this?". The answer to this will reveal A LOT about how a company operates and how much you do / don't want to be involved with that.

What is your testing environment like here? How much of my time do you think will be using this environment?

2nd interview &/or job offer -

"Can I have a tour of the company? Maybe have someone pop in to vcenter and show me some highlights?"

"That's a little low, can you increase that by 20k and add an extra week of vacation?"

Good set of questions above. The only suggestion I would make is to be not afraid of having your own notes to refer to for your questions. Interviews can be stressful and it is easy to forget what you wanted to say. Also referring to your own notes demonstrates that you have thought about the situation and looking at them gives you a second to collect your thoughts.

I like to ask the question, "What is one thing you dislike or could change about your job?" This usually throws the interviewer off and then puts the focus on them for a minute. In my experience, it opens an interesting conversation about the person and company in general.

My personal favorite is to hand the candidate a dry eraser, point to the board, and tell them to diagram out the process for making a PB&J sandwich.

IT's actually a question because I'm looking for a couple of things:

How ticked off they get at a BS question

Their logical processes

How oriented they are to customer service

In short, if they blow off an interview question, how likely are they to blow off the customers

My current employer did similar during the first interview. Theirs was 'Turn around in your chair and without looking at us, teach us how to tie a shoe'. So I did, tried to get them to interact and verify they are following along the way etc. In later conversations I found that it turns out this was the decider between myself and one other candidate that had about the same qualifications. He visibly scoffed at them and half assed an answer. I had fun with it. I got the job.